Pagina's

Friday, September 27, 2013

No fancy exposed rivets or engravings, but my old trusty Fieldmaster re-scaled with custom Buffalo horn. This easy to work with and rather strong material is ideal for every day use. That's why this knife's gonna be my first custom EDC. The Swiss cross is a nice add-on I wanted to show off if someone asks me where I bought this one... ;) I know ..., but you would do the same! :)

This is one of, if not, THE thinnest pocket knife available from Victorinox in a 84mm frame, yet it contains the most important tools. In this small package, you find the main blade and combo-tool. This tool offers a large flathead screwdriver, the same size as the one found on the other caplifter-design, a caplifter, wire stripper and can opener. The silver Alox gives this knife a strong and durable shell, and the 6mm thickness makes it ideal to carry in an environment where knives should be concealed... According to the Victorinox website (09/2013) they are still available...

This little Classic changes his scale-tools (toothpick and tweezers) for the pen and small LED. I was surprised by both the easy handling of the pen and the amount of light produced by this very small LED light. The pressurized pens, available in the plus scales are nice to have in an urgent situation, but difficult to handle. When we look at the slide-design on the Signature-series, it gives you the necessary "bulky" handle we're used to. It's short, but so are the pencils in IKEA and that works well too.... ;) To open this pen, you need to unlock the small side-lever by sliding it towards the inside of the knife (A). Once unlocked you need to keep it this way and push it towards the LED side of the scale (B). The LED was surprisingly bright. It's bright enough to illuminate the path in front of you in an emergency situation, to find a key hole, or even to use as signaling light. The shield is used a the push button for the LED and a small hole on the side of the scale allows you to push the battery out with a needle. As you can see on the picture with the large light-spot, this LED provides just enough light to see the necessary...

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A few weeks ago, my wife wanted to go to one of the many shoe-stores in Tongeren, a city close to where we live. When I entered the store, I noticed a nice display box with a glass cover and suddenly a lightbulb popped up above my head... This would be great for my Soldier replica.... And so I started my second display-diy adventure. It took me one week, 10 layers of acrylic paint, and a lot of patience to complete this one. Let's start with the basics... The base-construction is made of 8mm MDF wood and contains small pinewood beams to strengthen the frame. The RGB led strip inside provides a diffuse effect thanks to the milky white lucite inside the cross. On top, I used two LED lights of 3watts each, available in IKEA for 10Euro. The Acryl cover is cut with my figure saw and "welded" with Chloroform. The Victorinox decal was bought on Ebay and gives the display an "authentic" look... I'm a real diy guy, and made many things in my life, but this one made me smile when I showed it to the wife. ;) She loves it!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

A few weeks ago, my wife introduced me in geocaching. This is a worldwide community with participants and people who actively hide and maintain caches. The main goal is to search with a portable gps for hidden "logs". Once you know which area you want to search, you can look for cache- coordinates on the website. When you reach the spot, you can start searching and some spots have spoiler-pictures or even hints... I love this kind of "activity", because it gives me a great excuse to use my precious Fieldmaster and Sentinel. I used the wood saw of the Fieldmaster a few times to make some walking sticks, and even the small 91mm saw surprised me. I used it before, but I have to admit that this time I didn't spare it. Without the slightest effort, I cut through 3cm Oak. For those not known with this hobby.... Give it a try... You won't be disappointed!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Victorinox released 3 different types of "knives" with this beautiful Beijing Opera Mask, the Swisscard classic, Classic SD and Climber. They all come in a nice cardboard box with a mask print and pouch. These knives are only available in Chinese stores and some offer international shipment. That's how I got mine. I love to find the Climber, but these are more difficult to find... In China, this Opera Mask edition is often copied, especially the Swisscard. You can easily spot a fake one if you look at the tweezers and toothpick. The plastic has a different color and the nail file has a different "pattern". Please, don't be fooled by the low prices!If it looks to good to be true, it usually is!!!

Below : This imitation has a toothpick made from grey plastic instead of ivory (B) and the nail file has another grind-pattern as the real one (A). These cost around 3 to 4 $ and are often found on Chinese online-shops, so don't be fooled...

Saturday, September 7, 2013

The Autotool was a nice, useful idea, but the tool size was a bit clumsy. A few of the plastic tools got easily damaged and this shows once more that plastic is Victorinox's Achilles heel... It was introduced in 2000 and discontinued about a year later. This happened due to low sales and a few design flaws. The battery of the tire pressure gauge couldn't be replaced, the ice scraper broke fairly easy due to a "hidden" liner lock and the classic lightbulb made this a huge mistake for a company that offers a lifetime warranty... The pliers head is the same as the one found on the Swisstool, but the handle is twice the size as the head. This makes the tool extremely difficult to handle. The outer shell (handles) is sand-blasted grey. Why they didn't go for the shiny surface like the Swisstool stays a mystery to me. It contains a few Swisstool tools with the same release lock (philips head screwdriver, can opener, cap-lifter and a large serrated blade. I'm not a fan of the serrated blade because of the limited uses, but for some reason, Victorinox placed this blade on the Autotool and the Sportratchet. The flashlight was a big surprise... For a tool, released in 2000, you would expect a LED, but no, they went for the classic lightbulb. Don't get me wrong, I love Victorinox and sometimes it's allowed to make a few mistakes... In a career of over 125 years, a few mistakes are forgivable... The ice scraper was well designed, but thanks to the "hidden" release, often broken by misuse. Overall a great tool to add to your collection, but I would never use it... One positive thing about this tools is that Victorinox knows when to cut their losses. Some people would have problems with admitting that they made a mistake, but not Victorinox, since they stopped production after a year.

Below : Notice the size difference between pliers head and handles.

Below : removable Fuse puller

Below : Digital tire pressure gauge

Below : Flashlight with lightbulb

Next you can see how the ice scraper should be deployed and closed. Please notice the liner lock!!!

Welcome

**PRESENTATION**

Hi, I'm Jeroen, born in Tongeren, the oldest city of Belgium on 19 februari 1981. My main hobby is collecting knives, and lately that changed to almost only Victorinox... After traveling to the SAK's birthplace, my hunger for more grew and I started this blog to answer your questions and mainly learn from other collectors like you... I hope you like the blog and if you do,please be so kind to leave a message in the guestbook after your visit.

The history in a nutshell...

The company was founded in 1884. Since 1891, the company has delivered knives to the Swiss army. Their famous emblem—a cross in a shield—has been used by Victorinox since 1909. That year, the mother of founder Karl Elsener died and he named the company "Victoria" in her honour. In 1921, with the introduction of "inox" into their products, the brand and name of the company became the present "Victorinox" ("Victoria"+"Inox").

Additionally, Victorinox claims never to have had to fire or make redundant an employee for economic reasons. To do this they set aside profits during boom periods to supplement recessionary periods, as well as temporarily contracting employees to other companies as outsourced labour during recessions.

In 2006 the company had a workforce of 900 employees and produced about 34,000 Swiss Army knives, 38,000 multi-tools, and 30,000 household, kitchen, and knives per workday. Approximately 90 percent of its production is exported, to more than 100 countries.